Currently living in a foreign country without knowing the local language, and slowly realizing that things will probably not work out the way I want them to until I get back to the US in about 1.5 years.

The last 4 months since I've decided to start dating again included: one first date from OLD about 1.5 hours away that went nowhere romantically (though we have similar interests and kept in touch as friends), two "yes I'd like to go out with you" in-person meets that later became 1 ghost and a "idk why you can't take the hint that I'm not interested in you that way" response, a few OLD matches where the convos fizzled out, and one OLD date that seemed to check all my boxes, but she was just touring a city nearby. Although we kept chatting and I ended up visiting to her city some time later where we spent a lot of time together, it was clear that although we want similar things in the overarching sense, the way we want them (and our location difference) makes us incompatible.

Although that last date and subsequent visit has given me some positive momentum of 'if I found this now, maybe I can find this again with a person that WILL check those boxes and IS going to be compatible", that feeling is depleting. Every day seems to be a 20+ minute waste of my free time swiping to maybe get one match a week. The people I do match up with are almost exclusively: other foreigners (almost always incompatible), people from Russia that match with me probably just because I know the language (which I don't mind, but also largely incompatible), and most commonly the tourists visiting a city about an hour away that just want a vacation hookup - which just feels super hollow to me, especially given it's a 2.5 hour round trip + drinks and maybe food expenses.

It's just all so frustrating.